I change up my revision techniques every day

I do well at school, I got all 7s, 8s and 9s in my last mock which I'm happy about, but I think I can't study. It's not that I don't want to, I really do because I want to do well but everyday I make a new study plan and I change up my techniques so often I never get anything actually done and its really starting to stress me out, with my exams coming up in May. My subjects are history, English lit & lang, maths, combined science, French, 3d design and r.e.

Here are all the things I've tried:

•

digital flashcards, they help me learn and consolidate the info but I never come back to them and they feel so passive and boring to do and takes forever

•

Mindmaps, I get too fussed about the space I have and the info I want to include, again I never come back to it

•

Physical flashcards, use them once and never again, very time consuming

•

Spreadsheet recall qs, worked for while but I never want to revisit them again, takes a long time to create the qs and answers

•

Cornell notes, I don't think I have the time to be making notes at this stage and I never revisit them

•

Blurting, good for recalling info but I feel like I'm not doing anything with it

I feel kind of hopeless right now, I want to do well but I can't decide how I will make it happen. Everytime I use a new technique, it either feels like I'm not revising properly or I'm just wasting my time getting excited about something for a day, creating a whole new system for it and then abandoning it the next day. Since I start and never finish, I am always at the same point and am never really advancing in my revision, just staring over and over again a million times.

Any advice and tips would be so helpful to me right now, I feel a lot of pressure to do as well as I do in class in my real exams and I feel like no matter what I do to revise, it's not sustainable, efficient or engaging to me in any way. I really want to succeed and I am ready to put the work in, I just need some direction. Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

KA_P

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

20

Original post by etudbee

I do well at school, I got all 7s, 8s and 9s in my last mock which I'm happy about, but I think I can't study. It's not that I don't want to, I really do because I want to do well but everyday I make a new study plan and I change up my techniques so often I never get anything actually done and its really starting to stress me out, with my exams coming up in May. My subjects are history, English lit & lang, maths, combined science, French, 3d design and r.e.

Here are all the things I've tried:

•

digital flashcards, they help me learn and consolidate the info but I never come back to them and they feel so passive and boring to do and takes forever

•

Mindmaps, I get too fussed about the space I have and the info I want to include, again I never come back to it

•

Physical flashcards, use them once and never again, very time consuming

•

Spreadsheet recall qs, worked for while but I never want to revisit them again, takes a long time to create the qs and answers

•

Cornell notes, I don't think I have the time to be making notes at this stage and I never revisit them

•

Blurting, good for recalling info but I feel like I'm not doing anything with it

I feel kind of hopeless right now, I want to do well but I can't decide how I will make it happen. Everytime I use a new technique, it either feels like I'm not revising properly or I'm just wasting my time getting excited about something for a day, creating a whole new system for it and then abandoning it the next day. Since I start and never finish, I am always at the same point and am never really advancing in my revision, just staring over and over again a million times.

Any advice and tips would be so helpful to me right now, I feel a lot of pressure to do as well as I do in class in my real exams and I feel like no matter what I do to revise, it's not sustainable, efficient or engaging to me in any way. I really want to succeed and I am ready to put the work in, I just need some direction. Thanks :smile:

It does sound like you're feeling very overwhelmed right now :console:

Please believe in yourself, I'm rooting for you!

Have you tried a combination of any of them? Maybe try Quizlet flashcards made by other people and using the different functions and questions styles on there? Otherwise, physics and maths tutor? If you use blurting in combination with this it may help, as well as perhaps journalling questions that you seem to be losing marks on frequently. Trying to use these techniques over a longer period will help as well, since the impact in the short term is less than in the long term.

Does that help at all? It does sound like you might be a bit burnt out, so please don't forget to take care of yourself and keep taking regular breaks! :hugs:

Best of luck!!

Reply 2

username6109211

5

try using cgp books for sciences (esp chemistry) and doing a huge number of past papers (again especially for sciences). For history reading and making notes from memory does actually work, even if you never look at the notes again. and memorise timelines of key dates and stats (for the lead up to ww2 for example, if you do that).
For english try to read model answers and work on using a clear structure and close language analysis. Genius lyrics is weirdly a good source of poetry interpretation. Ultimately past papers are the most important thing and exam technique matters, so look at mark schemes too.
But dw too much - if you've been doing well in class for the last 2 years or so you don't even need a huge amount of revision - it will sort of all come together in the exams. Cramming is defo worthwhile for GCSE exams tho. It's never too late to learn and revise when it comes to GCSEs

Reply 3

ezisomer

6

Hi, I'm in y13 and although some of my subjects were different to yours, I think I have some advice. Idk if this will be useful or if you've heard it all before, but...
It's very important to use diff techniques for each subject. For Eng lit, I made flashcards of the main quotes, brief analysis and which theme in the book/play they fall under. Try to only memorise quotes that cover a lot of themes - this will mean you have less to memorise. Also do lots of practise essays covering a wide range of themes.
For Eng lang, just do lots of practise papers... can't rlly revise for this one as anything could come up so just do practise. No need to make notes.
For maths, don't make extra notes other than ones you already have from lessons. Do whatever questions you can find (preferably exam-style/from your spec). Then, night before an exam, review notes made in class. Focus on things you need to memorise like circle theorems, cosine rule, proofs, etc.
For physics and chem, similar method to maths. Do questions (past exams and CGP textbook), don't make flashcards except for formulae and definitions you must remember. Night before exam: review these flashcards and review any other resources like CGP textbook.
For bio, make notes. I know flashcards can be long to make and mind maps are annoying... so just normal notes is fine. Don't stress over the format of your notes - this doesn't matter as much as people say it does. Just make sure they are as brief as possible and that you revisit regularly. Then do practice questions.
I did Spanish instead of French and ngl I literally just read the vocab sheets at the end of each unit over and over again and reviewed common sentence structures from notes I made in class. Then do practice questions. May sound ineffective but I got a 9 so ig it worked.
Didn't take history but RE - memorise a few quotes then practice papers... no need for flashcards, just be selective about ur quotes (some quotes like "God is love" are rlly useful as they can be used for nearly every 12 mark essay)
Sorry if that was rlly long and not helpful, but best of luck in ur exams :smile:

Reply 4

ezisomer

6

Original post by ezisomer

Hi, I'm in y13 and although some of my subjects were different to yours, I think I have some advice. Idk if this will be useful or if you've heard it all before, but...
It's very important to use diff techniques for each subject. For Eng lit, I made flashcards of the main quotes, brief analysis and which theme in the book/play they fall under. Try to only memorise quotes that cover a lot of themes - this will mean you have less to memorise. Also do lots of practise essays covering a wide range of themes.
For Eng lang, just do lots of practise papers... can't rlly revise for this one as anything could come up so just do practise. No need to make notes.
For maths, don't make extra notes other than ones you already have from lessons. Do whatever questions you can find (preferably exam-style/from your spec). Then, night before an exam, review notes made in class. Focus on things you need to memorise like circle theorems, cosine rule, proofs, etc.
For physics and chem, similar method to maths. Do questions (past exams and CGP textbook), don't make flashcards except for formulae and definitions you must remember. Night before exam: review these flashcards and review any other resources like CGP textbook.
For bio, make notes. I know flashcards can be long to make and mind maps are annoying... so just normal notes is fine. Don't stress over the format of your notes - this doesn't matter as much as people say it does. Just make sure they are as brief as possible and that you revisit regularly. Then do practice questions.
I did Spanish instead of French and ngl I literally just read the vocab sheets at the end of each unit over and over again and reviewed common sentence structures from notes I made in class. Then do practice questions. May sound ineffective but I got a 9 so ig it worked.
Didn't take history but RE - memorise a few quotes then practice papers... no need for flashcards, just be selective about ur quotes (some quotes like "God is love" are rlly useful as they can be used for nearly every 12 mark essay)
Sorry if that was rlly long and not helpful, but best of luck in ur exams :smile:

also you prob already know but Eng lit, lang and RE are rlly time restricted so do lots of timed practice and get used to writing quickly. other subjects, timing not as big of an issue (maybe history is but idk). make sure to have lots of breaks and look after yourself too, GCSEs are important but you really don't need 8s and 9s in everything :smile:

Reply 5

etudbee

OP

7

thank you all for your tips and advice, it really reassured me! with about 30 days till my exams start, do you think i should still make flashcards at this point or go straight to exam questions? i feel like I won't have enough time to get everything done before exams start.

Reply 6

ezisomer

6

Original post by etudbee

thank you all for your tips and advice, it really reassured me! with about 30 days till my exams start, do you think i should still make flashcards at this point or go straight to exam questions? i feel like I won't have enough time to get everything done before exams start.

if you've started already, might as well finish but if you haven't started I'd say move onto exam questions then if you have time go back and make flashcards based on gaps in your knowledge (mainly for biology). you're getting good grades though so that probably shows you remember things well :smile:

I change up my revision techniques every day

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